Subcommittee to Develop Asset
Management Standards

ASTM International Committee F36 on Technology and Underground Utilities invites all interested parties to participate in the standards developing activities of Subcommittee F36.60 on Infrastructure Asset Management. The subcommittee is currently developing its first standard.

The new subcommittee was formed because the issue of managing underground pipeline utilityassets of has been an area of confusion for municipalities for many years. While the subcommittee plans to address other assets in the future, the initial focus is on piping and related support equipment of all shapes, sizes, materials and designs for water and wastewater municipal infrastructure.

At an organizational meeting held in Boston in July 2007, the subcommittee discussed the scope of their first proposed standard

The standard will provide a general framework for uniformly managing the infrastructure assets associated with community water and wastewater systems;

Assets included within the scope of the standard include underground water and wastewater pipelines and all related appurtenances as well as above-ground components that provide operational support to these underground assets;

Aspects of asset management covered include evaluating, acquiring, installing, operating, maintaining, renewing and disposing of water and wastewater infrastructure;

This first standard will not cover in detail the methodologies required to fully implement a water or wastewater asset management program but will document existing resources to use in order to assist agencies in implementing such a program; and

Where no existing resources are available for specific areas of asset management, detailed guidelines will be developed to address these areas.